a3Genealogy - Accurate, Accessible Answers - specializes in military, naturalization records, Native American and African American ancestry. The a3Gen blog is penned by Kathleen Brandt, an international genealogy consultant, speaker and writer. a3Gen clients span from Europe, Asia and Africa to the Americas.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Family researchers are quick to request the
Veteran Administration files of their ancestors. They also scour the medical
reports and notes of injuries found in the veteran’s service records. Both of
these medical based files give us a bit more about our veteran: place, injury/illness,cause
of injury or illness, duration of time for recovery, etc. But rarely do
researchers uncover medical reports and injury reports from the field Station
Hospital. These valuable reports and associated correspondence can provide the
researcher with additional information on troop events and activities, station information,
early discharges and demotions. Plus they may fill in the gaps that the Fire of
1973 has left us.We all know “…between 16-18 million Military Personal
Files were destroyed in the fire of 1973 at the St. Louis National Personnel
Records Center. This fire destroyed about 80% of Army records from Nov. 1 1912
to Jan. 1 1960; and 75% of all Air Force records from Sep. 25. 1947 to Jan 1.
1964.”

Military Station
Hospital Records

Camp Hospitals kept records. The
Adjutant General kept reports and the Surgeon General’s Office was kept
abreast. There are impressive amounts of documentation and correspondence resulting
from the station hospital records, and the best place to begin your search is
with the Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (RG112). Of course your pre-work, as explained below in
the Case
Study Brief, should have been completed, prior to taking on this NARA
task.

What to Expect?

The Surgeon General Annual report will
not name your ancestor by name, but provides an overview of the hospital patients:
number of disability discharges, mental issue occurrences, venereal disease
issue, camp hospital outbreaks, etc.

So, Where’s My
Ancestor?

It is in the correspondence that you
will find your ancestor’s name. Be sure to understand the process.

The hospital
reports are forwarded to both the Veterans Service File (hopefully salvaged and
safely archived in your ancestor’s file at the National Personnel Record
Center, St. Louis) and a copy was traditionally sent to the Adjutant General’s
Office (AGO).

The AGO may
maintain these records, but usually they were forwarded and are stored at the NARA
in College Park (for Modern Military). However, you may also wish to check
State Archives, and regional Archives.

RG407 Research

The Adjutant
General keeps the Surgeon General’s Office (SGO) abreast, and often has to
notify the SGO for both disciplinary actions (in case of injuries caused by
neglect which includes venereal disease) and for discharge due to medical
reasons. The correspondence can most often be located in the AGO Decimal
Correspondence of RG 407.2.1 Be sure not to disregard the Decimal Files of the Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1917 - even though there are over 5, 018 rolls of microfilm from 1948-1962 in the Decimal Correspondence (RG 407.2.1) alone.

It is in this chain of correspondence letters,
notes, telegrams, that you may find your ancestor discussed. Know the common flu,
unless resulted in death or discharge, did not warrant descriptive explanations
to the AGO or SGO. However, you can find out if there was a flu outbreak using
the SGO Annual Report.

Where Are
Surgeon General Records Located?

As to not be confusing, please note that
the Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (RG112) are not just held at
the NARA in College Park, but also at theRegional Offices: Atlanta, Ft. Worth Texas, Waltham, MA etc.

Case Study Brief

A recent case of a burnt fire only held
a veteran’s Certificate of Disability Discharge. It was clearly noted that the
veteran was discharged on Section II - physical disability. The veteran only served for 2 months and was
discharged. Why? This document presented us with more questions than answers
beginning with for what “physical reason” was he discharged?

Prior to fishing through the massive
NARA Surgeon General and Adjutant General’s Correspondence, be sure to closely
review anything in the veteran’s service file, (i.e. last pay voucher, discharge
papers). Then it’s time to scour Morning Reports for the troops and years of
your veteran. These vital troop reports can narrow the dates of your ancestor’s injury,
activities and locations. If your ancestor was removed to the station hospital,
he is usually named at the time of hospital entrance and return to duty.
However, rarely is it explained why he was sent to the station hospital. For
this reason the related correspondence is needed.

Monday, November 5, 2012

If you are confused by the documents that state your American born female ancestor
was not a US citizen, you are not alone. Tracing one family, the woman was a
citizen as a child, had her passport application denied because
she wasn't a citizen, then later applied for citizenship. Shaking my head to the confusion, once again I researched the laws
of the time for answers to discover the moving citizenship requirements that
were imposed after the Naturalization Act of 1906. Interestingly enough the
Naturalization Act was created to standardize the naturalization procedure and
citizenship requirements. Yet from 1907 to WWII, citizenship laws impacted
American born women, leaving the men unscathed.

What to Look For?

Did
your female ancestor marry a foreign national?The Expatriation Act of 1907 declared that an American woman who married
a foreign national or alien lost her US citizenship.So from 1907 -1922 women born in the USA lost
their citizenship when they married foreigners, but could only be repatriated
when their husbands became naturalized citizens.

Did
you female ancestor marry an Asian? The Married Women’s Citizenship Act of
1922, also called the Cable Act, reversed most of the Expatriation Act, except
in the cases of an American woman being married to an Asian.From 1922 - 1936 the Cable Act still stripped
American citizenship to those married to Asian aliens.

The
law became more woman friendly by 1940.
At this time women were allowed to repatriate if they lost their
citizenship between 1907 – 1922 due to their alien spouse. However, to restore her US citizenship, the
American-born was required to apply for citizenship and take the oath of allegiance.

What About Men who Married Foreign
Nationals?

Surely
you didn’t expect the same loss of citizenship to be reported for men during this
timeframe? Neither the Expatriation Act
of 1907 nor the Cable Act applied to men. However, the flow of immigrants was
controlled by the Immigration Act of 1924 which limited European immigration
and banned Asian immigration to the United States. (Note the exceptions below).

During
WWII the Immigration Act had to be repealed when approximately one million American
soldiers married foreign women from 50 different countries. Visit the War Brides in Citizenship and the Law.

1906 The
Naturalization Act of 1906 standardizes naturalization procedures, makes
some knowledge of the English language a requirement for citizenship,
and establishes the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization in the
Commerce Department to oversee national immigration policy.

1907 The Expatriation Act
declares that an American woman who marries a foreign national loses her
citizenship.
Under an informal "Gentlemen's Agreement," the United
States agrees not to restrict Japanese immigration in exchange for Japan's
promise to voluntarily restrict Japanese emigration to the United States by not
issuing passports to Japanese laborers. In return, the US promise to crack
down on discrimination against Japanese-Americans, most of whom live in
California.

1911 The Dillingham Commission warned that the "new" immigration
from Southern and Eastern Europe threatens to subvert American society. The
Dillingham Commission's recommendations lay the foundation for the Quota Acts
of the 1920

1917 Congress immigration from
Asia, except for Japan and the Philippines. The Immigration Act of
1917 restricts immigration from Asia by creating an "Asiatic Barred
Zone."

1921 The Emergency
Quota Act restricts immigration from a given country to 3% of the number
of people from that country living in the US in 1910

1922 The Cable Act
partially repeals the Expatriation Act, but declares that an American woman who
marries an Asian still lose her citizenship

1924 The Oriental
Exclusion Act prohibits most immigration from Asia, including foreign-born
wives and the children of American citizens of Chinese
ancestry.

1934 The Tydings-McDuffe
Act grants the Philippines independence from the United States on July 4, 1946,
but strips Filipinos of US citizenship and severely restricts Filipino
immigration to the United States.